One of the best perks of using certain credit cards is the extended warranty benefit that doubles the manufacturer’s warranty up to an extra year or two for free.
That was the case with the popular Costco Citi Visa card, but cardholders who read the fine print notice on their recent credit card statement or checked the Citi website were stunned to learn that that benefit is about to be discontinued.
*MOUSE PRINT:
That’s right, after January 22, 2023, the two-year extended warranty that the Costco Anywhere Visa by Citi card provided will be gone. This benefit has been worth its weight in gold for many a consumer who learned that their major appliance, computer, or big screen TV needed repairs after the manufacturer’s one-year warranty expired.
Costco, however, still appears to be offering its Costco Concierge Service whereby it provides a free second year warranty on major appliances, computers and television sets.
Citi continues the trend of removing most of the valuable consumer benefits that used to be standard on its credit cards, as we reported back in 2019 and also in 2018. The extended warranty benefit has also been dropped on many American Express cards and those of other banks.
You can still find the extended warranty benefit on some Chase credit cards, from some other banks, and on a very few Citi and AMEX cards. Particularly as we start the holiday shopping season, before you make that major appliance, TV, computer, or electronics purchase, check with your credit card issuers to see which of your cards still doubles the manufacturer’s warranty for free.
And while you’re at it, ask for or review your card’s current benefit brochure because you can no longer assume that other traditional benefits are still included like free collision damage waiver on rental cars.
Read the article in the NY Times and realized that my favorite tea may demonstrate shrinkflation. Twinings loose tea in a metal can has less in it when opened than about a year ago. How do I know? Because in the past, I could not place the scoop I use into the can and close it. I had to wait until I used some and then the scoop would fit. Maybe the scoop shrunk, but I don’t think so.
Even fast food merchants are doing the same thing. I recently went to Popeyes and Although they advertise one more piece of chicken in the box they’re miniature chickens I never saw such small chickens – pigmy chickens?
Citi has progressively gotten worse over the past couple of years, including their website that they’ve recently made changes to and is one of the worst to navigate and log into
Just one more reason to look for another card to replace the Costco Citi Visa card. Today I use it exclusively for gas, restaurants and Items I want to extend the warranty coverage for (to the tune of 10’s of thousands of dollars each year). No doubt they’ll be looking to drop the Damage & Theft Purchase Protection benefit next.
I have quit using my Citi card, except for I.D. to enter Costco. I’m hoping Costco will change cards.
This is why I no longer use my American Express card as my go to card. I have a lot of credits and they are messing around honoring cashing them in. You can no longer cash them in for cash or apply to payments. Previosly they could be cashed in, not just applied to overpriced items.
I still have extended warranty coverage on my American Express Blue Cash Preferred card (1 year extended), and my Citi AAdvantage card (2 years extended). Although for all I know, these benefits could be removed at any time.
Get ready for many credit card changes. Why? At this time credit card debt balances are up 15%, and in the next 6 months, they shall explode. Banks know huge losses are just starting and shall soon become major losses. So, what is their best defense, wait or start their defenses now?
Easy answer, start now. That means looking at all costs besides the upcoming losses. Therefore, good borrowers will be impacted. We shall see much more reduction in benefits as the days go by. This probably will happen to all credit cards. It shall be interesting to see how solid borrowers will react.
With the negative changes that Citi is making to their “sponsored” Costco credit cards — complain to Costco. Tell them that your consumer benefits are being taken away by Citi. Urge them to switch away from Citi to another card provider, like they last did dumping American Express for Citi Visa.
I guarantee that Citi will get the message. Costco is a huge revenue stream for them, they cannot afford to lose it. But Costco needs to be pushed to do the right thing for their customers – they loath ‘rocking the boat’.
The problem is that when Citi started removing benefits, there weren’t options to go to. Competitors had already removed the benefits or never had them.
What card could compete with Citi Double Cash back in the day? It had 2% cash back on everything, 90 day price protection, 2 year extended warranty, secondary rental car coverage. Now with most of those benefits gone, 2% cash back on everything is still hard for other cards to even match. Some have 3% – 6% on select categories, but 1% – 1.5% is still the standard for non-categories.